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- Comprehensive Link Audit: We identify all issues, so you don’t have to.
- Seamless Repairs: Quick fixes with no disruption to your site.
- Enhanced Performance: Improve user experience and boost SEO.
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Keeping your website healthy is key to attracting more visitors. The Ahrefs Site Explorer can uncover hidden issues like broken backlinks. This article will guide you through finding and fixing these pesky problems, ensuring a smoother user experience.
Stay tuned for simple solutions.
Key Takeaways
- Broken links are URLs that don’t work, leading to a “404 error” page. They can happen from URL changes, deleted pages, or typos.
- Having broken links on your website can lower your visibility in search results and frustrate users, making them likely not to return.
- Tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer and Broken Link Checker plugin for WordPress help find and fix these issues quickly.
- Fixing broken links involves using 301 redirects, updating with the correct URL, or removing the link if content is no longer available.
- Regular checks for broken internal and external links are essential for a smooth user experience and better SEO.
Comprehending Inactive Hyperlinks
Broken links are hyperlinks on a website that don’t point to valid webpages. They can result from URL changes, page deletions, or mistyped URLs.
What are Inactive Hyperlinks?
Broken links are URLs on your site that don’t work anymore. They lead to a “404 error” page instead of the content they promise. This happens when a webpage moves or gets deleted without updating the URL elsewhere.
Imagine clicking on a link for important info and getting an error message instead—frustrating, right?
Many things cause these broken links. Mistyping the URL or changing a webpage’s address without fixing the link can break it. Also, if another website you linked to shuts down or changes its own URLs, this creates dead links on your site.
Keeping every link working isn’t easy but is crucial for making sure visitors have a good time on your website and find what they need without trouble.
Common Causes of Broken Links
Now that we know what broken links are, let’s dive into why they happen. Websites change all the time. Sometimes, you move or delete pages on your site. If other pages were linking to these, now they point nowhere – a dead end! This is one major cause of broken links.
Another reason is typing mistakes in URLs. A small typo can turn a proper link into a useless one.
Also, websites you link to might go offline or change their content structure without telling you. When this happens, your links to those sites won’t work anymore. Using tools like the AIOSEO Broken Link Checker can help catch these issues for WordPress sites.
Keep an eye out for changes and updates both within your website and on external sites you connect with; it helps avoid many broken links troubles.
The Impact of Broken Links on SEO and User Experience
Broken links hurt your website’s standing in Google search results. Think of your site as a network of paths. When some paths are broken, Google’s crawlers can’t find their way around.
This lowers your site’s visibility online. For visitors, clicking on a link and hitting a “404 error page” is like running into a dead end—it’s frustrating and wastes time. This bad experience makes users less likely to return or share your content.
To keep users happy and improve SEO, use tools like the Ahrefs Site Explorer or Broken Link Checker plugin for WordPress sites. These tools help spot dead ends—broken links and missing images—fast so you can fix them quick.
Fixing these issues keeps both search engines and visitors happy, leading to more traffic and better engagement with your site content. Keeping everything linked correctly means smoother journeys for everyone visiting your website.
Discovering Broken Links with a Checker
Discovering Broken Links with a Checker:
– Use an online tool to find broken links on your website.
– The Google Search Console can help identify and report broken hyperlinks.
What are Inactive Hyperlinks?
- Use a free online tool like Brokenlinkcheck.com to scan your website for broken links. This tool crawls through your site and identifies any dead or invalid URLs.
- Leverage Google Search Console to check for crawl errors and identify broken links. The tool provides a report showing the presence of broken hyperlinks on your site, enabling you to fix them promptly.
- Explore plugins like Ahrefs Site Explorer or Broken Link Checker for WordPress websites. These tools help in scanning for broken backlinks and internal links, aiding you in identifying and fixing them effectively.
- Regularly perform manual checks on your website by clicking on all outbound links to ensure they are functioning correctly and not leading to 404 pages.
- Utilize the Broken Link Checker Chrome extension, an additional tool that can assist in finding and fixing broken links on your website with ease.
- Pay attention to notifications or alerts from your content management system (CMS) or website audit tools if they provide link checking features as part of their services.
Methods for Detecting Inactive Internal Hyperlinks?
Finding broken internal links is essential for maintaining a healthy website. Follow along with the steps below:
- Use Google Search Console to find and fix broken internal links on your site.
- Regularly perform a site – wide audit using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to uncover hidden broken internal links.
- Utilize the Broken Link Checker plugin for WordPress to automatically detect and remedy broken internal links on your website.
- Manually check your website’s internal links by thoroughly examining each page and post for any broken connections.
- Ensure that your content management system, such as WordPress, includes automatic notifications for any new broken internal links that may emerge.
By staying vigilant with these steps, you can keep your website free from the negative impact of broken internal links on SEO and user experience.
How to Fix Broken Links
- Use 301 Redirects to send users and search engines to the correct page instead of a broken link.
- Update the link by finding the correct URL and replacing the broken link with it.
- If the content is no longer available, consider removing the broken link from your website altogether.
An example of how to find and fix broken links:
STEP 1) Open brokenlinkcheck.com/broken-links.php
STEP 2) Enter your website URL in the white text field
STEP 3) Enter The Security Code Exactly Same
STEP 4) Click on find broken links now! button
STEP 5) It will show the Broken links
STEP 6) Click on the url text written on the right side of that link to see which page has that broken link. When you will click on it, it will open that page.
STEP 7) Now copy link text and search it on the page that have broken link
STEP 8) You can now see the broken link
Conclusion
In conclusion, utilizing a broken link checker is crucial for maintaining a seamless online presence. It allows you to swiftly identify and rectify any malfunctioning links on your website, ensuring an optimal user experience and bolstering your SEO efforts.
With the aid of tools such as Ahrefs Site Explorer and Broken Link Checker plugin by AIOSEO for WordPress sites, managing broken links becomes a straightforward task, safeguarding your business from potential setbacks.
Take advantage of these invaluable resources to boost your site’s functionality and overall performance in the digital realm while prioritizing user satisfaction and search engine visibility.
Founder & CEO
Jim is the CEO and founder of MakeThingsNew, a digital marketing agency he launched to provide services such as affordable website design, website maintenance, web hosting, email marketing, and ongoing SEO for his client’s projects. He earned a Master of Business with a specialization in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix. Jim launched his first digital marketing agency in 2012 and has since dedicated himself to serving independent business owners. Additionally, he has taught at the college and university level for several years, teaching courses such as Information Technology in Hospitality and Tourism, Marketing, and more. Prior to opening his first marketing agency in 2012, Jim had accumulated over sixteen years of business experience.
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